Church integrates M-5000 with existing Roland M-48 Personal Mixing system as part of massive upgrade to church’s existing A/V infrastructure focused on user-friendliness and interoperability,
allowing extensive networking and streaming capabilities.

Los Angeles, CA — When Shane Weber of Web Feat Productions, a media consulting firm that specializes in serving churches and not-for-profit organizations, was brought in to spec solutions for a new FOH console at Rose Heights Church in Tyler, Texas, he focused on his normal priorities: “When I come in, I really want to make a functional system for people to walk up to. It’s going to do everything they want it to and more, and it’s going to be as simple as I can make it.” Once a church makes an A/V upgrade a priority, a consulting or installation firm sometimes specs solutions that are too engineering-based and difficult for Sunday volunteers to wrap their minds around, he notes, again emphasizing the elegant simplicity that complements the functionality of a well thought-out infrastructure. With these things in mind, to Weber the solution was obvious: the Roland M-5000 OHRCA Live Mixing Console.

“They were updating their audio components while adding video production capabilities, five cameras, video projection, environmental projection, new screens, upgraded lighting, LED components and a new lighting console,” notes Weber. “Another focus was on production for live streaming on Sundays. I needed a front-of-house console that would play well with these components and the existing infrastructure, and the M-5000 was a natural fit. I did the installation for all the video equipment and designed and installed the audio systems.”

The “existing infrastructure” involved several Roland M-48 Live Personal Mixers, which the church’s membership already understood and was partial to, as well as Roland S-4000D Splitter and Power Distributor units. Weber added several more M-48’s, which are now used for personal mixes for the church’s individual musicians, as well as another S-4000D to route audio. “With their Roland units already in place, the M-5000 was a natural progression from what they had. And its open architecture is truly future-proof, working well with whatever they are bound to throw at it – Dante™, the REAC protocol, and the list goes on.”

The M-5000 fully integrates the M-48 personal mixers with the M-48 manager, with easy setup and control of all M-48 Personal Mixers directly from the M-5000. The M-5000 and M-48 integration includes an engineer’s monitor function that allows the M-5000 engineer to listen and adjust the mix of any musician’s M-48, the ability to synchronize console scene recall to memory preset recall on the console, and the ability to create two separate M-48 worlds from one console, allowing a different and unique selection of 40 sources to be sent to each M-48 world.

The church’s decision-makers did not require much convincing. Notes Weber, “Other options would have required more connections and conversions, which can easily become ‘points of failure’ on a hectic Sunday morning. Once I showed them how simple this solution was compared to other options, they were sold on the M-5000 right away. And they have a new part-time audio engineer, and he has learned the M-5000’s operation very quickly. He is happy, and so are the musicians, the church leadership and congregants. Everyone is pleased with this solution, and I’m proud to have been a part of it.”